3 Day Mindfulness and Meditation Retreat for Everyone in Winslow, Buckingham

Facilities

If you are new to mindfulness, you’ll learn everything that you need to be mindful in a weekend. If you are already practicing mindfulness, then these weekends will take your practice to a new level.

They are great fun, the food is fantastic, you’ll meet some wonderful people and you’ll learn something that could change your life.

Highlights

• Ideal for beginners and masters alike
• A full program of teaching and meditation
• Simple but profound teaching
• Gong bath
• Yoga Nidra
• Ongoing support with your practice
• 20 years of mindfulness teaching experience

What are their mindfulness weekends about?

It’s great to learn mindfulness from books or lectures, but in truth mindfulness is an experience, and books and lectures can only point you in the right direction.

Mindfulness can’t be grasped intellectually because mindfulness isn’t a theory, or a belief, or anything to do with mental gymnastics. Mindfulness is a state of being. It’s a heightened state of alert awareness that allows your mind to go quiet. Then you can rest from the constant mental chatter, your problems, worries, and head dramas and get on with the really important issue of enjoying your life.

The basic principles of mindfulness are really simple and there really isn’t much to understand. Mindfulness is all about practice and direct experience. And that is what their Summer of Love weekends are about.

They’ll teach you everything that you need to know to practice mindfulness, but more importantly you’ll get to experience mindfulness for real and live it for an extended period.

From the outset, they’ll help you to achieve a deep state of mindfulness and the retreat is designed to help you maintain your mindfulness for much of the weekend. And that will teach you more about mindfulness than any book, lecture, or smart phone app ever can.

They have a team of really experienced mindfulness practitioners who can hold a high degree of mindfulness and they will help to keep you mindful in between the classes, teaching you mindfulness, and advancing your practice to a new level.

They won’t make you dress in robes or sit facing a wall for hours, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s just not their style. They prefer to teach mindfulness their own way. They have a modern, plain-talking approach to mindfulness, the teaching is no less profound but they want to make it accessible relaxed and fun. It is a holiday after all.

Go on, treat yourself, book yourself on their mindfulness retreat weekend everyone deserves a holiday from their head – even you!

Schedule

Friday

You can arrive any time after 5 pm, they’ll have a warm welcome and a hot drink ready for you. You’ll get the chance to settle into your accommodation. They are a friendly bunch and they want to put you at ease and let any stress you are carrying dissolve and the magic start to work.

• 19:00 Dinner: Home-cooked vegetarian food (vegan / gluten-free option)
• 20:00 Welcome talk and introductions
• 21:00 Evening meditation with Steve, yoga Nidra, gong bath
• Chill out and fun and games around the campfire

Saturday

• 08:00 Chi Gong with Steve: Chi Gong is an ancient form of moving meditation. A simple system of mindful movements which form the basis of Tai Chi. It’s the perfect start to the day, it awakens the body and helps to center your mind for the day ahead (don’t worry if you have limited mobility, you can even do Chi Gong sitting down)
• 09:00 Breakfast
• 10:30 The fundamentals of mindfulness: Adrian will explore the basics of mindfulness and help you enter a state of Satori – clearing the clouds of thought from your mind and into a place of clear blue thoughtless clarity. You learn the main techniques for achieving thoughtless awareness. It’s wonderful to be able to switch off your problem, worries, and head drama. But it’s just the start really and Adrian will explore with you the life-changing possibilities this offers you
• Break: Tea, coffee, cake
• 13:00 The way of the body: Adrian will explore an approach to mindfulness favored by the late great Master Thich Nhat Hahn called The Way of the Body. The alignment of mind and body is the most perfect way to cultivate mindfulness and bring it into your everyday life. Mindful walking, mindful eating mindful breathing, mindful everything. Featuring the famous standing-in-a-queue meditation and forest bathing. (It’s alright, you keep your clothes on)
• 14:00 Lunch
• 15:30 Mindful walk: The art of mindful walking, never going anywhere, but always arriving. How to turn the simple act of walking into the most beautiful meditation experience. As the thinking subsides your senses come alive and a whole new world comes into view
• Break: Tea, coffee, cake
• 17:30 School of meditation: Steve’s passion for meditation has taken him on an incredible journey of exploration, he’s explored many meditation practices, lived in Ashrams in India, and studied with gurus and masters. Steve will explore a number of different techniques.
• 19:00 Dinner
• 20:30 Evening meditation: sound bath
• Chill out and fun and games around the campfire

Sunday

• 08:00 Kundalini yoga (meditation)
• 09:00 Breakfast
• 10:00 Mindfulness of emotions: Adrian will explore the art of self-mastery. How to feel and process painful emotions in your body, without reacting to them and thereby spreading more pain and suffering into the world. You’ll discover that you don’t need to fear or avoid painful emotions, that they are not bigger than you and they need not ruin your quality of life. You’ll learn how to manage emotions consciously and move away from reaction towards right action from a place of calm clarity
• 11:30 Break
• 12:00 The energy of mindfulness: As the thinking mind quietens, you begin to perceive a more subtle energetic dimension to reality. You’ll explore the energy of mindfulness and touch upon the potential for healing and ultimately world transformation
• 13:00 Break
• 13:30 Emotional clearing meditation: This is a powerful meditation and fantastic for healing unresolved emotional pain. Many of the people who come back to their retreats time and time again come for this experience. You’ll love it
• 14:30 Lunch
• 15:30 What now? How to maintain your mindfulness and create a brighter world – ongoing support
• 16:00 Retreat ends

All meals are home-cooked vegetarian with vegan and gluten-free options – Please advise of any food intolerances they need to cater for.